Long Time Coming
by xomacherieamour
Summary: A summer camp away from the real world, she finds true love.


A smile on her young, pale face, one Dominique Weasley was on her way our of her cabin.

Yes, cabin. For the twenty-year-old female was currently residing at Camp Aesalon, a summer camp for boys and girls who attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was a counselor at said camp and spent her days watching over the younger girls, keeping them out of trouble. She also taught a class, supposedly, but if you've ever attended, you would argue vocally that it wasn't class at all. Simply put, it was a daydream. See, she "taught" this meditation class for a month now and was truly one dreamer. She would close her eyes and sigh and, though she knew some of the children liked to sleep, she didn't really mind. After all, it was an hour of meditation and it certainly wouldn't hurt the children to let them have a catnap. Besides, they were out in the bright sunshine and that did seem to make some people sleepy.

Not Dom, no. She was fully energised, thanks to the full cup of hot coffee she had downed right before class started. The blonde did need her energy, after all. Considering the rowdiness of some of the children (which she always called them despite the fact that the youngest of them were just nine years younger than her), she had to be in top form to stop their poking and prodding and peeking and playing. And that always required at least one cup of coffee, usually two. This afternoon, for example, as she settled in front of the kids, all in a pretty semi-circle in front of her, she had another styrofoam cup settled in the middle of her Indian-style lap. "Afternoon, children," she called, ignoring the eyerolls she knew were going on, "let's begin, shall we?"

And with that, her eyes were closed and she was breathing deeply. Her mind was roaming from the things she had to do to the way she wished things would be. The way she wanted desperately for things to go. For Dominique, though content with her life and her surroundings, wanted nothing more than to be dating another counselor at Camp Aesalon. His name was Luke Macmillan and he made her the happiest she'd ever been. He was but a mere four years her elder, and he seemed to think that mattered. But she knew better. She knew that age really was nothing but a number and they had a connection that age could not break. But she was too shy to ever tell him how she felt. So, instead, she let her mind mull over it as she meditated.

In her mind's eye, she saw herself (a bit more tan and possibly a trifle thinner) as she walked up to him in the midst of the camp goings-on. She took his shoulder in her hand and made him turn to face her as she told him just how much she liked him and sure, he thought their age was a big deal, but who really cared? She saw herself kiss him, not too forwardly, just enough to show him that she was serious. And, in her thoughts, she saw that he smiled and took her into his arms, making her smile even wider and blush slightly, even on the outside.

"Dominique!" Turning, she saw the very man she had, just moments before, been imagining herself kissing.

"Luke!" she cried, standing and shushing the kids back into their mediation as she picked up her coffee and hugged him with her free arm. "Aren't you supposed to be teaching your kids now, too?"

Shaking his head, he explained that one of the kids had become violently ill, he believed it was a product of the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, but he couldn't prove it. And we all know that when one child is ill, so begins a chain reaction of all the children in the immediate vicinity getting ill and before you know, it's a trip to the infirmary. So he was off for the afternoon.

A smirk tugged at her pink lips as she saw the coffee cup in his hand, matching her own, though she knew the internal contents were very different. His coffee was black, bold, and slightly sweet. Whereas hers was creamy and caramelly and very sweet. It was, perhaps, stemmed from their differences in personality or outlook on life. For Dom was very much an optimist. She believed that everyone had some good in them and most people could use it rather well, they just chose not to. She believed that everything would be alright, despite the fact that the Wizarding world was once again starting to brew with whispers of darkness that she really only knew very little about, thanks to her Maman and Papa deciding that she, at twenty years of age and a full-grown woman, was not to hear from them. So she knew bits and pieces, and she knew that at Camp Aesalon, she was safe. That was why children were being sent there in the first place. The safety of numbers and older, wiser wizards out there taking on all the evil in the world. And Dom knew, though she probably shouldn't have, that Luke was one of the few who wished desperately to be out there, as he had been months ago. Instead, he had taken on the camping job (which, Dom liked to think, was partially to spend time with her), and had to spend his summer tucked away with small children and Dom for company.

"Can we, uhm, can we talk for a second?"

Nodding, Dom followed him away from her class. This meant she only halfway noticed when the kids got up and left, leaving them completely alone. "What is it, Luke?" The question was more for show than anything. They both knew what this was about.

Two weeks ago, there had been a carnival held on camp grounds. It was big and extravagant in a way only Wizards and Witches can pull off. And there had, on this occasion, been a meteor shower. Which, Dom was sure, Muggles found to be a sort of phenomenon that was likely never to occur again, but what the Muggles didn't know was that this meteor shower made it possible for you to make one wish, and that wish would come true for twenty-four hours. Of course, it couldn't be a death wish or a harmful wish or anything along those lines. And at the end of the twenty-four hour period, your wish was up. And you must deal with the consequences.

On this particular day, Lucas had made some sort of wish for Dom to show all her affection for him. Yes, all of it. And that meant that for a solid twenty-four hours she was all over him in a way friends never should be. And when midnight struck, she had been humiliated. Which, she knew, wasn't his intention. Perhaps he just wanted to know how she truly felt. At any rate, she had flown from the room when she "woke" from the wish and they hadn't spoken of it since.

"The… Dom, you know. Dom, I don't think you understand and I just want to explain." The pained look on his face caused her brow to furrow.

"Luke, honey, it's okay. I'm no worse for the wear." Putting on what she hoped was a believable smirk, she sipped her coffee and looked down.

"No, you need to know." He took a deep breath and seemed to steel himself against whatever it was he was battling with. "I made the wish because… well, because I'm into you, Dom. I like you. A lot and I know you probably don't believe me because you don't think you're worthy or something of someone like me, but the truth is… I've never felt more comfortable with anyone else. You make me realise that the world isn't all bad and I've got to have some fun from time to time. You make me smile more frequently than anyone ever has, including my younger sister who was very much a joker when we were younger. You are, as cliché as it sounds, and I do hope you'll forgive me, the light of my life. And I mean that in the sense that you literally brighten my day just by…existing." Another deep breath and she could feel his eyes on her, waiting for some response. "Dom, I might love you."

"Oh, Luke," her voice, breathy, caught in her throat and made her half-sigh her words. She had dreamt of this exact moment and was almost too stunned to think it over for even a moment. Taking a slow, deep breath, she looked up at him, tears in her eyes as his hand found hers almost immediately.

"Well, Dom…?" His eyes questioned her as she began to nod, leaning up and kissing his cheek very lightly.

"I might love you, too, Luke," she whispered, snuggling into his side. Overwhelmed by the confessions he had just made, she looked around, not ready yet to look directly at him. "Oh, they've run off!" she cried despairingly. Chuckling, Luke pulled her into his side and kissed the top of her head.

"I think we can let them have one afternoon off, can't we?"

Blushing, she nodded and looked up at him, catching his eye as she smiled.

"I think they've earned that."


End file.
